Now try predicting the weather
The Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams had the best weekend ever, winning their respective NFL conference championships to move on to the Super Bowl. The stories were different for each: the Rams were one of the preseason favorites who made big moves in-season to boost their chances to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, while the Bengals were the worst team in the league just two seasons ago and while they were good this season, still only went 10-7 in the regular season.
But as overjoyed as Bengals and Rams players and their fans are, one sports bettor must be going out of his mind. As confirmed by FanDuel, this person made one of the most amazing bets of all time, not only correctly predicting the scores of both conference championship games, but also parlaying them into one massive win.
The bettor put $20 down on the Bengals to beat the Kansas City Chiefs (as underdogs on the road) 27-24 and the Rams to beat division rival San Francisco 49ers 20-17. The parlay went off at +2,895,000 odds and paid out an incredible $579,020.
Even better: the $20 was a FanDuel site credit, so the bettor risked nothing.
May have boiled down to one play
As insanely unlikely as this winning bet was and as many plays in each game that there were that could have changed the final scores, if it weren’t for one ill-fated decision by the Chiefs, the bet would have lost by halftime of the first game.
For the first half of the AFC Championship Game, Kansas City was mauling the Cincinnati Bengals. The game was a laugher, yet another romp by Patrick Mahomes and KC’s high-powered offense. The Chiefs scored touchdowns on their first three possessions and were up 21-3. Cincy cut it to 21-10, but once again, Kansas City drove the length of the field to setup another score before halftime.
With five seconds left and no timeouts, KC had 2nd and goal at Cincinnati’s 1-yard line. Most people who were watching expected them to kick a field goal to keep their momentum going and go into halftime up by two touchdowns, while getting the ball to start the second half.
But the Chiefs decided to try to essentially put the game away right then and there and went for the touchdown. Tyreke Hill was stopped on a swing pass, the half ended, and Cincy was down only 11. The Bengals outscored the Chiefs 14-3 in the second half, picked off Mahomes on the first possession of overtime, and kicked a field goal to win it, completing the largest comeback in conference championship history.
All Kansas City had to do was make the easier, probably smarter play and kick an automatic field goal at the end of the first half. Had they done that, they would have gone up 24-10 and while there was still the possibility that the score could have still ended up 27-24, it was much less likely. And heck, given that they went for it, all they had to do was get one yard and barring a missed extra point, would have been up 28-10 and the bettor’s wager would have lost.
Again, there were plenty of plays in just that one game alone that made the difference in the bet. If the Bengals would have recovered Mahomes’ fumble at the end of the 4th quarter, the Chiefs wouldn’t have tied the game to send it to OT and the score would have ended 24-21. Had Mahomes not thrown an interception a few seconds into OT, perhaps the Chiefs would have gone on to score and win. But the one play that really seemed to be the bet winner was the play at the end of the second half.
